JPMorgan Chase (JPM) put Wall Street at the center of the nation's abortion debate Friday by reportedly vowing to pay for its women employees to travel to states that allow for legal termination procedures just minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
The nation's largest bank told staff in a company-wide memo, first reported by CNBC, that it will pay for women to travel more than fifty miles to states that allow legal abortions to take place.
Bloomberg News also reported that Goldman Sachs (GS) is planning to review its travel expense coverage for staff needed access to women's reproduction heath care and broader abortion rights while Citigroup (C) made a similar pledge earlier this spring.
"Our health care plans have historically covered travel benefits for certain covered services that would require travel," the JPMorgan memo read. "Beginning in July, we will expand this benefit to include all covered services that can only be obtained far from your home, which would include legal abortion."
The nine-member Supreme Court voted 5-4 to overturn the 1973 judgement known as Roe v. Wade that established a federal right to abortion rights. It also voted 6-3 to uphold a Mississippi state law that would ban all abortions after 15 weeks. Chief Justice John Roberts, who supported the Mississippi law, declined to vote with the majority on Roe.
The ruling essentially passes the decision on abortion rights to the nation's 50 states, with around half now expected to pass some form of restriction or limits to access.
"The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision," Chief Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority.
"Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences," he added. "And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division."
Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan said that "with sorrow - for this Court, but more, for the many million of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection - we dissent."
Several other blue-chip companies, including Starbucks (SBUX), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), Tesla (TSLA) and Mastercard (MA) have offered to either cover travel expenses or reimburse staff needing to travel for abortion access. Walt Disney (DIS) added its name to that list on Friday, as well.
